Ejected Mavericks fans tell their side of the story to local media

The Mavericks fans ejected from Monday’s game against the Kings told their stories to local media Tuesday.

Fans of the Dallas Mavericks have been wallowing in basketball hell for the last 10 days.

First, there was the trade in the dead of night that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the paltry sum of Anthony Davis, Max Christie and the Lakers’ 2029 first-round draft pick. To rub salt in that gaping wound, it was announced hours after the initial reports that Dallas would have to deal an additional second-round pick to the Utah Jazz to make the deal work.

Then there was the initial press conference, where Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison bared his ass, if not his soul, before the Mavs lost the first game of the Post-Luka Era by an eye-popping score of 144-101 at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Then there was the revelation that Harrison may have only talked to his good friend Rob Pelinka, GM of the Lakers, after the decision was made to move on from the superstar that the Mavs had raised from just a pup. Then the Mavs got rid of promising newcomer Quentin Grimes, in another vaguely puzzling move that looked suspiciously like Harrison may have spoken to just one team — the Philadelphia 76ers — before the Mavs dropped a heartbreaker at Philly’s Wells Fargo Arena. Then the Lakers introduced Dončić into the fold at a press conference where he looked as stunned as his fans in Dallas were (and still are).

Then there was the injection of Christie into the lineup, a rare positive in this appalling, nightmarish timeline. Harrison was somehow a no-show for the press conference announcing the arrival of the players for whom he engineered the trade. That was followed by a protest at American Airlines Center as soon as the Mavs got back to Dallas for their ensuing homestand. Then came Davis’ debut, which was stellar for two and a half quarters, until it wasn’t. It should be noted that the fans acted right toward the new players at every turn. Davis got the biggest cheer of the starting lineup and one of the most pronounced introductory roars all season before the Mavericks dispatched the Houston Rockets, 116-105, on Saturday.

Then there was Monday night, when it all boiled over. The shorthanded Mavs dropped an overtime game to the struggling Sacramento Kings, who had just dealt a borderline franchise player of their own. The Kings pieced it together for a 129-128 win over a Dallas bunch whose effort has never waned as things have turned from tough to war-crime levels of atrocity. As noted in our stats post, several fans were kicked out of the game for starting “Fire Nico” chants, holding up signs to that effect or even simply mouthing the words “Fire Nico” in one case.

Three of the Mavericks fans who were kicked out of Monday’s game appeared on Tuesday’s episode of The Dumb Zone, a podcast hosted by longtime former Dallas-Fort Worth sports radio personalities Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp. They’ve had their own recent tussles with the powers that be, settling a lawsuit with their former employers after their exit from local radio (which stemmed from a contract renewal dispute) that, until recent months, had them unable to take any ad revenue from their fledgling show.

The full Tuesday episode is behind a Patreon paywall, but the boys were kind enough to make this segment available on the podcast’s YouTube channel. Two of the three fans happen to be lawyers. They were identified only by first names on the show, but the guys named AC and Walker are the two who were booted from the game after Walker mouthed “Fire Nico” during a karaoke cam promo during the third quarter and the pair held up signs that said “FIRE NICO” in the fourth. The gentleman in the middle goes by Chris, and he was a big player in the early part of the proceedings during Saturday’s pre-game protest on Victory Plaza. Apparently, he was kicked out for starting a “Fire Nico” chant along the baseline the Mavs were shooting at in the fourth quarter, while Kyrie Irving was shooting some late free throws.

“I didn’t really start seeing anyone getting kicked out until the fourth quarter,” Chris said. In fact, AC and Walker, pictured in the above post holding their signs, were among the first to get sent home by security.

Chris continues:

“And then, with about two minutes left is when I really started getting the ‘Fire Nico’ chant going. … That’s when Mark Cuban turned around, pointed and started yelling, ‘sit down, sit down.’ And I pointed back at him and yelled, ‘You sit down. You did this. It’s your fault.’ And that triggered him, and he started yelling over and over again, ‘shut the f- up and sit the f- down.’ I hope that somebody gets that video, because my video that I posted is all the interaction that happened after that — right after Mark Cuban drops like 10 f-bombs on me. And I don’t use foul language once, I’m not obscene one time. … Not even during this time when security and Dallas PD — and here’s the thing I got a problem with. They’re so hostile and aggressive. They bully and target and threaten fans — on Saturday and last night. The way that they do it is so out-of-pocket and so unnecessary. If anybody violated NBA Code of Conduct last night, it’s Mark Cuban, for sure.”

He said later in the interview that when security personnel and Dallas Police officers approached him, they gave him two choices: being escorted out of the AAC or being dragged out.

A story written by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon would seem to corroborate a lot of Chris’ timeline of events, even though Chris’ own presence on X, formerly Twitter, does more than enough to disabuse viewers of the notion that he behaves like some sort of angel at Mavs games. Chris would later tell the Dumb Zone that the aggressive personality displayed in his posts on X is something of a “troll” persona he puts on.

He made sure to work the point into the Dumb Zone interview that he’s attended more than 100 NBA games before Monday’s loss to the Kings, and he’s only ever been kicked out of one before Monday. That may not be the sterling point in his defense he thinks it is. He was apparently one of the principals behind the “Fire Jason Kidd” groundswell a couple seasons ago.

Mavericks vice president of corporate communications Erin Finegold told ESPN, “In the first incident [apparently referring to Walker and AC], the guest brought in a sign that broke the following rule included in the NBA Fan Code of Conduct: Clothing, garments or signs displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s).”

In reference to the incident surrounding Chris, Finegold told ESPN, “The fan wore a t-shirt that also broke the rule [cited] and was also intoxicated, disruptive and uncooperative, all listed in the NBA Fan Code of Conduct.”

Not being at the Kings game, I can’t vouch for or debate anyone’s level of intoxication, but it seems a monumental stretch to say that the “Fire Nico” slogan on AC and Walker’s signs or on Chris’ shirt meets the minimum standards for “explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization.”

However, later in the Dumb Zone interview, Walker admitted that in the fine print written on tickets, the language basically gives the Mavericks organization carte blanche decision-making powers to eject anyone in the stands for basically any reason they can drum up in the moment, from his own legal perspective. He said Tuesday that he still has tickets loaded up in the Mavs app for Wednesday’s game against the Warriors.

For his part, Chris said he anticipates hearing from team officials at some point about a longer-term ban from the arena but is holding out hope that Tuesday’s media blitz (he was interviewed by several local media outlets) puts pressure on the Mavs to ease up on how they are treating their fans, including himself. On that point we certainly agree.